Face Down
Disclaimer: Can't think of anything cute to put for this so I'll just be blunt: I don't own Pride and Prejudice or any of the characters mentioned here. I am, however, using them for this fan fiction.
Chapter Three—Burning Up The Phone Lines
I'm betting dreams upon my paper wings
Because flying isn't just for kings
I take the stairs to the very top floor
I paid the super to leave open the door
All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues—Senses Fail
Unfortunately for Lizzy, her beloved sister, Janie, not wanting her to get away with getting suspended from school, talked to their parents and persuaded them to actually punish their second daughter. Because Francesca adored her eldest daughter who was her pride and joy, she instantly agreed. It took a bit more of talking to finally persuade Ben Bennet to punish his beloved daughter, but he eventually agreed.
Lizzy Bennet was punished.
The apocalypse had come.
Lizzy's punishment included no computer or T.V. for a month, she had to do extra chores for two weeks and she was not allowed to go out with her friends for a week.
All in all, Lizzy was in one foul mood.
"You will die Janie." Lizzy screeched later that night as she pelted items (pillows, binders, phones, scissors, stuffed animals, etc.) at her sister. "You will die a vicious and horrible death and I shall laugh at you."
Janie ducked the phone that sailed over her head and crashed into the bookshelf behind her, caught the pillow that flew at her, but she got hit smack in the face with an old American History binder, causing her to stumble backwards and fall into the book shelf with a small crash. "Is this the thanks I get for caring?"
"Caring?" Lizzy scoffed as she spied another pillow from her bare bed and seized it. "You call getting me in trouble caring?" With nimble fingers, she whipped the pillow at Janie who was still sitting on the ground. The pillow got her right in the face, but it wouldn't cause any pain.
"Jeez Lizzy, with that aim you could easily make Varsity Softball—"
"She's already on it you idiot."
Lizzy twisted her body sideways to see her twin sisters, Lydia and Katie stand in the doorway, watching the spectacle with amusement. Katie's blue eyes swept over the dismantled room, the way that Lizzy's bed was stripped of the pillows and how Janie was sprawled on the floor, a red mark on her forehead (courtesy from the binder that her sister had thrown at her). "Having fun Janie?"
"Slightly." Janie said sheepishly, ducking her head as Lizzy threw another binder (ninth grade Physical Science this time) at her. Getting down on all fours, she army crawled under Lizzy's twin bed, rolling her eyes as Katie started to hum the theme song from the James Bond movie. Instead of getting out from under the bed, she decided to stay there for a bit—just so she wouldn't be in the way of Lizzy's path of destruction.
"Lizzy!" Lydia exclaimed, "You are a celebrity! Everyone is talking about you!"
"Now what did I do?" Lizzy complained.
"You moron! You stood up to Ms. Jones! Everyone is talking about it! I had six kids come up to me today and ask if I was your sister!"
"Sorry 'bout that." Lizzy said, slightly embarrassed. Janie puffed up with pride as she heard some remorse in her sister's voice. Maybe now her sister would fully understand that she messed up royally...
"Are you kidding?" Lydia's blue eyes went wide, staring at Lizzy as if she had just grown two heads. "Because of you—Katie and I are celebrities at Meryton." She smiled blissfully; as if that was all she needed in life. "I mean, because of you, Katie and I out rank Mariah Lucas in popularity!" She held out her hand and Katie high-fived it.
Lizzy rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad that you're using my suspension to elevate yourself in the popularity ladder."
"Of course." Katie chirped, looking absolutely giddy.
"So, what are you now?" Lizzy asked, a smirk creeping on her lips. "Did you move from the D list to the D-plus list?"
Janie banged her head on the bed post.
Lydia shook her head as Katie stuck her hands on her hips. "No way!" She cried. "We're now A-list, Lizzy. A-list. We're equivalent to Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton!"
"And I'm Lindsay," Lydia said proudly.
Janie raised an eyebrow, as she crawled out from under the bed. "You want to be a woman who has been in rehab three times in the last year?"
Lydia raised her eyebrow. "So what? She's gorgeous—and she has guys falling at her feet. Plus, she's A-list material! Hello! Cha-ching!"
"I won't even ask." Lizzy asked with a smirk.
Ping.
Mr. Bing: Get your ass online.
Will looked up from his Calculus homework as the familiar noise greeted his ears. Smirking, Will shoved his homework aside and typed in a quick response.
Will.I.Am: What do you want?
He had to wait a few moments for a response. His friend wasn't exactly the fastest and consistent typer in the world…
Mr. Bing: Have you been on M/S recently?
Will.I.Am: Nope. Why?
Mr. Bing: You added Marissa as a friend, right?
Will.I.Am: Charlie, I have the entire school on my friend list. Of course Marissa's on there.
Mr. Bing: Right. Anyway, go check out her latest bulletin.
Will.I.Am: Fine.
Downsizing the IM, he double clicked on his Internet icon and logged into his MySpace account.
The 'Welcome Will!' popped up and a picture of him without his shirt on, showing his six pack loaded onto the page as he went down to the Bulletin section.
The newest bulletin was from 'Rissa Babbyyyy' and the title was 'I am the luckiest'.
Already knowing what it said, he decided to click on it anyway and read its contents:
WILL DARCY SAID YES TO ME. I AM GOING TO SNO-BALL WITH WILL DARCY!
Can a girl get any luckier that I am at the moment?
Answer: NO.
Xoxoxo
Rissa
Stifling his laughter, Will exited out of the Internet and returned back to his IM.
Will.I.Am: She sounds excited.
He saw the little thing at the bottom of his screen that informed him that Charlie was typing. Bringing back his Calculus homework, he looked at the thirty problems he was supposed to complete and quickly found the problem. Picking up his pencil, he quickly wrote a twenty-four in the margin of his paper and started to work on the problem.
Ping.
Mr. Bing: Duh. Caroline is quite pissed at her. She thought you were going to ask her.
Will.I.Am: Yeah, when that happens—hell will freeze over.
Mr. Bing: I told you not to go out with her.
Will.I.Am: Shut up.
Charlie didn't reply for ten minutes, allowing Will to quickly finish up five more problems. As he was writing down the equation to the thirtieth problem, Charlie messaged him again:
Mr. Bing: Haha, Lizzy just posted the funniest bulletin.
Will.I.Am: What's it about?
Mr. Bing: She's making fun of Mr. Greene. I like how she just put that 'Mr. Greene's mustache looks like a gorilla middle finger that had been cut off and glued to the contours of his face'.
Mr. Bing: It's quite long for a bulletin!
Now curious, Will clicked back into MySpace and looked around for a bulletin from Lizzy. He couldn't find one.
Will.I.Am: What's her display name?
Mr. Bing: Lizzah.
Will.I.Am: ….Lizzah?...
Mr. Bing: Mhm.
Pondering her strange display name, Will refreshed his page and looked for a recent bulletin from 'Lizzah'.
He didn't find it.
Frowning, he IMed Charlie back.
Will.I.Am: What's her bulletin called?
Mr. Bing: "You Know What Mr. Greene Looks like?"
Will.I.Am: What time did she post it?
Mr. Bing: Ten minutes ago.
Will looked once more but the only bulletin posted ten minutes ago was from Katelyn Holt ranting on how her boyfriend just dumped her.
No bulletin from Lizzy.
Turning to his friends, he searched for Lizzy's name and didn't find it. Odd. He had three fourths of Longbourne High School on his friend list. (The rest were either freshman or they didn't have MySpace)
Will.I.Am: I don't have her as my friend.
Mr. Bing: Well, THAT's a shocker.
Will.I.Am: Shut up.
Mr. Bing: Didn't you date Lizzy?
Will.I.Am: I'll go check. What's her screen name again?
Mr. Bing: It's Dizzy Lizzy.
Bringing up his AIM, he looked under the category 'Dated' and searched for a 'Dizzy Lizzy' but shockingly, he found that there was no 'Dizzy Lizzy'.
Will.I.Am: Is she on AIM right now?
Mr. Bing: Yup. I'm talking to her. Why?
Will.I.Am: I don't have her on my list.
Mr. Bing: …You're joking, right?
Will.I.Am: Why else would I be telling you this, you moron?
Mr. Bing: You never dated her?
Will.I.Am: I can't remember.
Mr. Bing: Hold on. I'll go talk to Janie.
After being massacred by Lizzy, Janie crept into her room as her parents explained to Mary that they were going out to dinner. "Score." Lizzy muttered to herself as she watched with baited breath, waiting for her parents to leave. "Now I can use the computer."
"You're grounded." Janie reminded her sister.
Lizzy glared fiercely. "Well, they won't know if someone won't tell them." She hinted heavily.
Janie sighed as she looked out the huge window and saw her parents pulling out of the driveway. Walking to her room, she moved her mouse and her computer screen of Charlie kissing her on the cheek faded as she saw she had a new message:
Mr. Bing: Janie! Are you there?
Janie Marie: Hi.
Mr. Bing: Good, glad you're on. Lizzy is certainly funny.
Janie Marie: And she's supposed to be grounded too.
Mr. Bing: Did you expect her to listen?
Mr. Bing: Forget I asked that.
Janie Marie: Haha.
Mr. Bing: Anyway, the reason I IMed you was to ask you something.
Janie Marie: Shoot.
Mr. Bing: Did Lizzy ever go out with Will?
Janie Marie: Don't make me laugh! Of course not! Where'd you get a crazy idea like that?
Janie eyed the computer screen for a few moments before rolling her eyes. Her boyfriend really was an idiot sometimes…
Janie Marie: Did I mention that your screen name reminds me of Mr. Big from 'Sex And The City'? And that's not a good thing Charlie.
After waiting ten minutes, Will finally got his response.
Mr. Bing: You never dated Lizzy Bennet.
Will froze for a second, staring at the screen. How could this be possible? How had he not dated Lizzy Bennet? He dated Janie Bennet! How did he miss the one year younger sister?
Will.I.Am: There's no way. I dated Janie—how did I miss Lizzy?
Mr. Bing: Beats me. I just talked to Janie—she said you never did.
Will didn't respond as he was looking away from the screen, thinking in his head about the girls he had dated. He could remember about a quarter of them, but he was sure that if he had ever dated Lizzy, he would have remembered her.
Ping!
Mr. Bing: I just had a really good idea.
Will.I.Am: You were actually thinking?
Mr. Bing: Screw off you ass. What I was saying is: how about you date Lizzy?
Will frowned as he contemplated that for a moment. Charlie actually made a good suggestion—what if he dated Lizzy? Then he could easily say he had dated the worthwhile girls at LHS! It was perfect!
Will.I.Am: You actually have a good idea Charlie. Good one—yes. I'll date Lizzy. It should be relatively easy, shouldn't it? All girls fall right into my open arms.
Mr. Bing: Don't be so cocky you idiot. Let's make it more of a dare.
Will.I.Am: A dare? I like the sound of that…
Mr. Bing: You have to charm, date, and break up with Lizzy within six months.
Was he joking? Six months? That was way too easy! He was going to snag Lizzy within a week. Two at the most.
Will.I.Am: Done! What's the catch?
Mr. Bing: If you loose, then you have to go to my house, knock on the door and ask for Caroline, wearing only your boxers and you'll have to ask Caroline for an extra-large condom.
Will stared at the screen until his vision became blurry but finally snapped out of it a second later with a booming laugh. Charlie was betting quite high on Will's failure. But what Charlie didn't know was that he intended on succeeding….
Will.I.Am: You're wasting your time Charlie. I'm going to win—and it's a deal.
Mr. Bing: Good. Your bet starts the day that Lizzy returns from In-House and it runs for six months. Until May or so.
Will.I.Am: Oh, and if I win—you have to go in front of Janie and ask that you want her to move in with you.
Mr. Bing: That's the shittiest dare I've ever heard of. But I'll take it. Happy Courting!
Will.I.Am: May the best ALPHA male win.
Ten minutes passed before there was another ping coming from the computer screen:
Mr. Bing: OY! Who the hell is Mr. Big from 'Sex And The City?'
Aha, now the plot starts to thicken! Woo!
I had some people say that they didn't like the fact that Lizzy is a "trouble maker". My response is that she really isn't one—she just likes to cause mischief, and she can't keep her mouth shut either. She will mature later on but at the moment, she's just a regular sixteen year old.
And I've also been asked about ages too. I'll explain, Janie is seventeen and a half years old and will be eighteen in December (she's born in 1989, so she lost a year). Lizzy just turned sixteen in September. Mary is only fourteen but she skipped a year so she's a sophomore instead of a freshman. And Lydia and Katie are only thirteen and in eighth grade. Will is seventeen and so is Charlie. Uhm, yeah.
I will update Lies, Love, and Deceit as soon as I can. This story is more of a break for me so that I can regain my thoughts for LLD. Read and review! Oh, and constructive criticism is always appreciated!
--GC
